JOURNAL OF OF RESEARCH ONLINE MusicA JOURNALA JOURNALOF THE MUSIC OF MUSICAUSTRALIA COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA ‘Kodava Hero’, ‘Appear Only Once Before Me’: the Assimilation of ‘Internal Exotics’ in Indian Film Songs ritical examination of exoticism in Indian film has frequently focused JOHN NAPIER on representation of Muslims (Arora 1995, Chadha and Kavoori 2008, Chakraborty 2012) or, more recently, processes of western consumption, as ■ Ca kind of ‘cosmopolitan chic’ (Desai et al. 2005: 79, various articles in Eleftheriotis School of the Arts & Media and Iordanova 2006)1. Less attention has perhaps been given to critiquing semi- The University of New South fictitious and exoticising representations of other minority groups within India, though Wales such representations may be implicated in discussions of the integrative project of New South Wales 2052 post-Independence cinema. In this paper, I examine song and dance sequences Australia in two Kannada language films, Muthina Haara and Mungaaru Male, critiquing representations of a group frequently characterised in popular discourse as ‘exotics within’2 — the Kodava or Coorgs, who are autochthonous to the district of Kodagu or Coorg in the southern state of Karnataka3.
[email protected] After introducing and contextualising the two films to be examined, I outline why representations in song and dance sequences matter, whilst framing discussion of exotic representation within a discourse developed in the study of exoticism in Western music. I will then make some observations on depictions